Resolve--don't set yourself up for failure this year

A new year is upon us and with it comes the commercials for weight-loss products, the rolling of our loved ones' eyes, and the feeling of starting fresh. If you're a writer, it will be tempting to squeeze "Write Every Day" between "Get Organized" and "Quit Smoking". And this is all right. Every writer looks to a new year with the intention of writing more, especially if they feel they haven't been writing enough.

But it's important not to get carried away.

The main reason New Year's resolutions fail is because people resolve to do too much too quickly, and then abandon the attempt entirely after about a week or so. How many times have you resolved to get into shape and eat healthily, but give up the first time you go to the store and have those snack cakes crying lustily out to you from the shelf? How often have you decided to get organized, head to the closet, and realize that you have way too much junk to handle alone, and then just sit and watch TV instead? It is important that, if you want to make a difference in your writing life for the new year, to not try to write a poem a day or a novel every month, especially if you haven't been writing much recently anyway.

So what should you do instead?

• Make sensible resolutions. It may seem sensible on New Year's Eve to resolve to write a thousand words a day, but when New Year's Day rolls around and you aren't feeling it, you may come to resent coming to the desk. That isn't the point of writer's resolutions. Instead, you could resolve to do something small and writerly, like write in your journal every day, write at least one sentence a day, try to finish a small project by the end of the month.
  
• Don't be so hard on yourself. So you spend New Year's Day avoiding the desk by taking down holiday decorations, or by playing with all that new stuff you got last week, or even hide from it in bed claiming to have a headache. When the day is over and no writing has been done, you throw the blanket off your head and think, "Well, I've missed the first day of the year. The first day and my resolution is gone! I must not be cut out for this." Then you decide to give up on writing every day completely. I have only one thing to say to these people: NO! Just because you slip up does not mean that you have failed. It only means that you missed an opportunity; an opportunity that will be there tomorrow just as much as today. One skipped day does not mean the rest of the year is ruined. You just try again the next day.
• A year is a long time; think instead in months, or even weeks. It's easy to be overwhelmed by the length of time when it comes to writing. Write every day? For a whole year? What if you have something come up? Instead of thinking is such broad terms, think smaller. This week, write every day. Next week, maybe you'll do something else. Take your resolution one step at a time.
• Start today. You'll notice that today is not January First. But what is January First if not just a day? You could start again on that failed resolution that you've already abandoned today. New Year's Day is not a magical day, and neither is the first of any month, or any Sunday, or Monday. Every day is just a day, and a day with an opportunity. Want to write every day this year? Write today. Something. Anything. Put pen to paper. Open a word processor. Write about how writing is hard. Write about how not starting on the first day of the year is stupid. Write about how your family is irritating and your middle wide and your sleeping patterns wonky. Write about whatever is on your mind, but write.